Barlow Trail Long Rifles Rendezvous

The Adventurer, Vernon Wade

Vernon was born in the Pacific Northwest and still lives in the shadow of Mt. Hood, near the small town where he grew up. Vernon has spent decades wandering the hills, hunting mushrooms, camping and riding motorcycles into the remotest nooks and crannies to be found in the region.

Thursday, June 25th. Walter is bummed to be left behind.

Thursday Arrival at Camp

On the road and headed up the mountain by a quarter of nine

Arrived at registration around 9:30

I had nice weather for setting up camp.

Screaming Fern welcomed me to Rondy, coming over to share a splash of apple pie.

I had beans and brats for dinner.

Friday, June 26th, 1836

I kept the fire burning all night, through intermittent drizzle which continued into the morning.

Kevin and Samantha brought their boys up to check out the rendezvous.

We started at the hawk and knife trail, where Ezra and Carter threw the tomahawk at targets with deadly effect.

The boys were more intrigued by Traders Row. Blade Maker had some beautiful handmade tomahawks and bows. He treated the boys so nice. They were drooling over his wares. He patiently explained what he had and how he made it. Then he pulled a couple of blunt arrows from his parts bin and gave each boy one. They were so excited!

We went next door to Muzzleloading and More, one of my favorite vendors. Knief was sitting at the cash register and heard Ezra and Carter gushing about the arrows they were given and how they wanted to make points for them. He pulled a cardboard box full of knapped flint arrowheads from under the table and told the boys to each pick one. Could this day get any better? Apparently, it could. Kevin and I were looking at Knief’s guns when we noticed Carter was missing. He had run back over to Blade Maker’s tent and was shooting arrows at a target the man had set up for him. Blade Maker cut Kevin a sweetheart deal and the boys came away with two kid sized bows and more arrows, these with points. At some point Samantha came looking for us. I snapped this photo at the moment she realized her boys had been armed while her back was turned.

The kids got to try the archery trail.

Ezra let his mom try the bow.

The kids were hungry. Ezra claimed he hadn’t eaten anything for days, so we went back to camp.

Roasting peeps in the tipi.

Kevin would rather sit in the rain than sit in the smoke.

Every inch a mountain man.

Walking up to the gun trails

The trail started across the road from my camp

The first station on the Trade Gun Trail was a skeet catapult.

Kevin I went out to walk the Trade Gun Trail.

Kevin and I were going to share my gun

I got off one shot, a near miss.

I loaded and primed the gun for Kevin. It flashed but did not go off. About half the prime remained, an unburned paste in the pan. We cleaned it up and tried again, with the same result. It was just too wet out for my flintlock.

We put the gun away and walked up the trail to watch hardier souls shoot. The caplocks did a little better in the rain.

Station 2 was a tomahawk throw.

Carter watching Kevin trying to figure out how to set a spring trap underwater at Station 3.

Most of the targets were steel silhouettes.

Some of the targets were very clever, such as “Jimmy’s camp has been raided by bears.” Ironically, the rendezvous camp had been raided by a bear a few days earlier.

Samantha and family stuck around for a ceremony held Friday afternoon for two BTLR members who had passed. Fred and Barney’s cremated remains were shot from a cannon at five o’clock.

Barney’s remains being passed to Screaming Fern to load into the cannon.

“Yabba dabba doo.”

After the cannon ceremony, my kniece and her family left for home. Carcajou invited me over for an enchilada dinner, which was a fine way to wrap up the day.

Soggy Saturday

Sporting my new silly hat. M1825 U.S.Infantry, enlisted.

It was raining when I closed my eyes Friday night and still raining when I opened them Saturday morning.

I was able to rekindle the fire in from a few remaining embers and soon had the tea on and was roasting a peep for breakfast.

This was the only other tipi in camp. They set up in the rain, late Friday evening. The poles looked odd, a uniform dark black. Apparently that’s what happens when you paint weathered silver poles with linseed oil.

The Muzzleloading and More trade tent

I went down to Trader’s Row to attend the shooters meeting, standing in the rain with a couple of dozen other souls. I ended up forgoing shooting. I didn’t have a partner and it was too wet to get very enthusiastic about it.

Even the caplocks were having trouble in the rain. Hoot, the camp gun doctor spent most of the day getting damp loads out of guns coming in off the trails.

Kieth, from Vernonia stopped in the lodge to warm up. We had an interesting palaver about vintage motorcycle racing. Turns out he was buddies with the Sandy Bandit, back in the day.

Saturday evening there was a potluck and council fire. I made squirrel stew and cornbread, hauling the food down to the potluck in my cart. After dinner, Loose Ends helped me haul the cart with the leftovers back to camp. We almost got to my lodge when the cart hit a rock and overturned. I was able to salvage the cornbread, but the squirrel stew became one with the forest floor. There was barely a serving left over, so it was no great loss.

Getting the council fire lit required some perseverance.

Eerie green flames in the council fire – perhaps the flickering ghosts of Fred and Barney.

It was still raining late into the night.

I rolled up in my blankets sometime after eleven, lulled to sleep by the rain tapping on the canvas.

Sunday, July 28, 2026 – Back to the Future

I broke fast with leftover cornbread in milk topped with molasses and butter. It was a cold morning and I had to trowel the molasses on with a spoon and chop off a slab of butter with my tomahawk, but I got it done and breakfast was satisfactory.

I took a break from packing to attend the awards ceremony.

Stitcher, handing out awards. I didn’t get any photos, but earlier that morning, he kindly accompanied me on the hawk and knife trail, and verified my score. I didn’t get a very high score, but I got to play the game, and that was fun. Stitcher had laid out the trail and he explained some of the finer points to me. As a rank novice, I very much appreciated that. What a nice bunch of people in this club!

The family sitting next to me really cleaned up. The adults took numerous awards for shooting and archery and the kids, two boys and a young girl, did too. Winners got to pick prizes spread out on a blanket up front – powder horns and tomahawks, one kid won a bow. The girl won a gun and horn as a raffle prize!